Mullova Ensemble: Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night)

Introduction

Viktoria Mullova and Matthew Barley lead a sextet of strings in a new presentation of Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht. Joined by dancer Ching-Ying Chien performing choreography by Joshua Junker, they create a powerful procession of shorter pieces (Bach, Debussy, Strauss) interspersed with improvisations and commissions by Jasmine Morris.
With the aid of theatrical lighting and projection, the audience is taken on a night-time journey through the forest before arriving at a full performance of Verklärte Nacht.

Composers

Jasmine Morris: Transfigured Night J S Bach: Allemande and double from Partita in B minor Debussy arr. Kang: Clair de Lune for 2 violas R Strauss arr. Barley Waldseligkeit Op 49 no. 1 for quartet J S Bach: Adagio from Sonata in G minor Bartok: Duos for 2 violins: Ruthenian Song, Cradle Song, Teasing Song, Sorrow, Ruthenian Round Dance Janáček: String Quartet no.2 Intimate Letters 3rd movement Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht

Creative Team

Matthew Barley; director, cello Viktoria Mullova, Lisa Rieder; violin Nils Mönkemeyer, Kinga Wojdalkska; viola Peteris Sokolovski; cello Ching-Ying Chien; dancer Joshua Junker; choreography Jasmine Morris; composer Yeast Culture; visual effects

Contact

Melanie Moult

Melanie Moult

Associate Director

Video

Photos

News

Press

  • Transfigured Night

    Turner Sims Concert Hall
    Oct 2023

    • The players responded to the work’s rapture with demonstrable affection, at one point Mullova and Mönkemeyer playing in unison, exquisitely capturing the moment of reconciliation. Thereafter, the work’s radiant lyricism soared with an unequivocal fervour, the final section now suffused with an iridescent glow, compassion explicit.

  • Transfigured Night

    Milton Court, London
    Oct 2023

    • A fascinating idea The music that precedes the full Verklärte Nacht certainly contains some jewels – Mullova’s typically elegant, sculpted performances of solo-violin Bach (the Double from the B minor Partita and the Adagio from the G minor Sonata) and a feisty group of Bartók’s Duo for two violins, in which she is joined by Lisa Rieder, as well as the third movement of Janáček’s Second String Quartet, Intimate Letters, which conjures up parallels with Schoenberg’s score

    • ...a compelling and very successful programme, setting the scene for and reaching its conclusion in an outstanding account of Verklärte Nacht in which the six players breathed as one, projecting the inner voices expressively and reflecting every nuance of both score and poem... The six players breathed as one during this work... Interspersed were dance sequences imaginatively choreographed by Joshua Junker and gracefully executed by Ching-Ying Chien – some of her contortions had to be seen to be believed.